Job Search Tips for a Jobless Recovery

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An internship at a hospital or other health-care employer would supply some much-needed experience, as would an industry-specific volunteer position at a nursing home for example.

EDUCATION
At the moment, the educational establishment might not seem as if it holds much hope for job-seeking college graduates. After all, with cash-strapped states cutting back on educational aid to local school districts, few are in a position to ramp up hiring. Even colleges and universities, victims of a recessionary one-two punch that has cut deeply into state aid and endowment income, are cutting back. At business schools, financial hard times are leading to layoffs, salary freezes, even program shutdowns.

But that may be about to change. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will pump $90 billion into education, with half of it going to local school districts. Over the next eight years job growth in the sector is expected to put teaching, post-secondary and elementary, among the fastest-growing occupations in the nation. And Presidential priorities aimed at reducing college dropout rates include everything from investment in community colleges to new degree programs for high-demand industries.

To land a job in education when you lack the necessary training and experience isn't easy, since the barriers to entry can be quite high—full-time teachers usually have specialized degrees, and college professor candidates typically need a PhD. But there are back-door routes. The academic hurdles for being a teacher's aide or substitute teacher are far lower—you can do both jobs before you even get your undergraduate degree—and they put much-needed classroom experience on your résumé.

Even better, sign up for a two-year teaching gig with Teach for America, the organization that dispatches college grads of all stripes to teach in urban and rural school districts across the country in order to eliminate educational inequality. No special qualifications are needed, and TFA is growing—over the next two years it expects to increase the number of teachers in the classroom by 17%, to 4,224. Even if you ultimately decide that teaching isn't for you, the TFA experience on your resume will open doors two years down the road, when it might be easier to find that dream job. "Programs like Teach for America or the Peace Corps provide valuable experience and build critical skills that employers typically look for," says E&Y's Black.

GREEN BUSINESS
It's no secret that America is going green. Green jobs are popping up everywhere, whether it's the technician installing solar panels on a home, the scientist researching ways to build better batteries for electric cars, or the executive looking for ways to reduce waste, eliminate unnecessary packaging, and cut costs. Job growth in this area is expected to top 50% by 2016, nearly four times the job growth for all other occupations combined, according to the federal government. And a number of Presidential initiatives, including billions in new investments in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and energy research, are likely to accelerate that job growth.

For obvious reasons, many of these positions are in the energy sector, and landing those jobs without some kind of industry-specific academic or business experience will be tough, but not impossible. A few business schools offer specialized programs, such as the energy business and finance program at Penn State's Smeal College of Business (Penn State Undergraduate Business Profile).

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